ATLANTA — When Jarred Kelenic hit .164 and struck out 25 times during a 22-game stretch through May 20, and when the Braves were averaging 3.3 runs while losing 17 times in 30 games through last Thursday, they leaned into the words a mental performance coach said to the team at spring training.
“We had a meeting before the season started with a psychologist that (Spencer) Strider brought in,” Kelenic said, explaining how he and the Braves stayed so positive during their extended offensive slump. which has ended for Kelenic and first baseman Matt Olson, and seems to have ebbed for a few others.
Kelenic continued with a synopsis of the performance coach’s message: “He said that we’re preparing for October, the playoffs. That we don’t want to be playing our best baseball right now. We’re a playoff team.”
Yes, the Braves would prefer to be leading MLB in virtually every major offensive category, the way they did last season. But as veteran catcher Travis d’Arnaud and hitting coach Kevin Seitzer said, they would rather slump early than late in the season. They would rather not see their bats go completely cold in the NL Division Series as happened each of the last two years in postseason series losses to the Phillies (.180 average, .594 OPS in 2022, .186/.519 in 2023).
That’s not to say that slumping in May would preclude the Braves from doing it in October.
But inside their clubhouse, the Braves believe there are too many good hitters for the team’s offensive slump to continue much longer, and a nine-run outburst Saturday in the middle of a series against Oakland was an encouraging sign for hitters.
Jarred Kelenic is on a hot streak after a cold start, something the Braves hope is contagious. (Kyle Ross / USA Today)
Kelenic is playing every day in left field since Adam Duvall shifted from their platoon to right field after Ronald Acuña Jr.’s season-ending torn ACL on May 26. The left-handed hitting Kelenic had two hits (one off a lefty) and lined out Saturday after his two-run double off lefty JP Sears drove in the winning run Friday.
He also had a double and a walk in the series-clinching win Sunday and did not strike out in the three-game series.
In his past 11 games before Tuesday, Kelenic was 12-for-36 (.333) with four doubles, a triple, a home run, five RBIs and five runs scored, with a .361 OBP, .576 slugging percentage and .937 OPS.
“Last year I hit lefties better than I hit righties,” said Kelenic, who is 4-for-16 against lefties in an extremely small sample size this season, after hitting .259 with a .774 OPS in 92 plate appearances against lefties last year with Seattle. He hit .251 with a .738 OSP in 324 PAs against righties.
Noting that it was also a fairly small sample size last year against lefties, Kelenic said, “That (better OPS vs. lefties) may be because I just had less opportunities to hit and I just got a couple of hits. But it comes in waves. The year before that I was terrible against lefties (.426 OPS in 59 PAs) and hit righties better. Two offseasons ago, I really focused in on trying to get better against lefties. And it paid off. And so now that I’m going to get the opportunity to hit against lefties, I’m looking forward to showing what I got.”
“I think he’s settling in nicely,” Braves third baseman Austin Riley said. “He’s having really professional at-bats. And whether it’s a lefty or righty, to me if you were to just pay attention to him and not know who’s pitching, I think he looks comfortable up there both ways.”
Braves designated hitter Marcell Ozuna said, “Now he’s able to play every day and he’s getting the confidence and feels better. That’s what we need, too. He’s gonna be fine. He can hit.”
Kelenic had only six strikeouts in 40 plate appearances in his past 11 games before Tuesday, after striking out 35 times in 90 plate appearances over his previous 28 games. The improvement began with a double and a walk on May 21 at Chicago, where he doubled and homered in the two games he played in series at Wrigley Field.
Seitzer remembers the breakthrough clearly because the hitting coach watched that Cubs game on TV while away for a family matter. Kelenic had been tinkering with his swing and setup at the plate since early in spring training. Seitzer saw the components come together in a stance and swing that worked better than any other Kelenic variation with the Braves.
He’s had good results since.
“As far as the evolution of his swing since he’s had our uniform on, it’s really heading in the right direction,” Seitzer said. “I like where it’s going. I feel like with his strengths and vulnerabilities, it’s putting him in the best position to where he’s able to barrel balls more often. And to leave off-speed, leave chase pitches alone more often, which I’ve already seen since he went to this stance in Chicago. I wasn’t there, but I watched the first freakin’ game and I was like, ‘On my gosh, what’s he doing, that looks awesome!’”
Seitzer said he and Kelenic discussed the changes during the next series, in Pittsburgh. The hitter explained his rationale, which was to get more tension out of his shoulders and stay looser through his swing.
“He gets real pissed (when struggling), and you see it when he swings hard — everything’s tight and stiff,” Seitzer said. “It pisses him off. Nobody likes that. So that’s where he’s trying to go with it, and it’s helped him a lot.”
While his offense this season has fluctuated from hot to cold to hot again, Kelenic’s defense has been outstanding since Opening Day. He leads MLB left fielders in a few defensive metrics at Fangraphs including ARM (outfield arm runs above average) at 3.1, and UZR (ultimate zone rating in runs above average) at 3.7, tied with Toronto’s Daulton Varsho for the lead.
Kelenic is tied for fourth in outfield assists among left fielders with three, and he’s played 11 games fewer than two of those ahead of him.
“I think if he keeps doing what he’s doing, he’ll be in the running for a Gold Glove,” Braves center fielder Michael Harris II said.
At the plate, it’s the best Kelenic’s felt for an extended period since early last season, when he hit .297 with 10 homers and a .914 OPS in his first 45 games for Seattle before slumping over the next two months and breaking his foot when he kicked a dugout cooler in frustration.
He doesn’t view it as tinkering with his swing as much as making adjustments to his overall setup at the plate.
“In baseball, the game’s always changing,” said Kelenic, a Wisconsin native and former Mets first-round draft pick (sixth overall in 2018) who will turn 25 in July. “I think your mindset has to stay the same but my body never feels the same every day. So it’s like I’m trying to find something that’s just going to allow me to just feel comfortable in the box.”
Seitzer said it’s put Kelenic in a better position to use his tools including quickness and strength.
“Way better,” Seitzer said. “For me, all the tinkering and adjustments are heading in the right direction. He’s a little taller, a little narrower with his stance, hands are a little lower. He wanted to get the tension out of his shoulders to stay looser, to where he could stay on the ball more. And it looks so much better.”
Kelenic said with the adjustments he’s made, he’s in a better position to let the ball travel deeper and still drive it up the middle or the other way.
“Sometimes I can be a little quick, because I love hitting the fastball,” he said. “My numbers on the fastball have always been really good. And with lefties, I think where I can get into some trouble sometimes is that I’m so ready to hit the fastball that when they flip those sliders in there I can pull off a little bit, just because I’m so anxious to hit the heater. And one thing that I really love about where I’m at right now is the last few games I’ve hit the ball hard the other way on the fastball.”
Braves players think they will be in a good spot later this season by focusing on doing things to ensure they’re at their best late in the season and in October. While Kelenic wasn’t around for those two NLDS losses — he played three seasons with Seattle before being traded in December — he’s heard plenty about those defeats against the Phillies, who finished 14 games behind the Braves in each of the past two seasons, only to beat them in the playoffs.
This season, it’s the Phillies who’ve built a significant lead in the NL East, leading the six-time defending champion Braves by seven games entering play Tuesday.
“Whatever the numbers say now, we have too many guys in here that are way too talented,” Kelenic said. “Like, we’re a playoff team. And I think that come October, all this stuff that we’re going to go through this year, the waves and the things that we’re going to learn as a team, I think come October we’ll be playing our best baseball. And that’s when it matters.”
(Photo of Jarred Kelenic: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
